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The Arts Hub
Local arts leaders have joined forces to present coordinated communication about the growing arts culture that can be found in this quaint historic district.
THE ARTS HUB MISSION
The Arts Hub is a civic organization established to promote a “Collective Arts Community” and a creative culture in Historic Downtown Louisville.
Vision: The Arts Hub will help promote an Historic Downtown creative community by developing common marketing tools offered free for use by individuals and organizations in the Louisville creative community, as well as establish events involving as many different types of local creative specialties as possible. Annual meetings with Louisville arts leaders will be offered in order to promote artistic collaborations. The Arts Hub will also support other Louisville arts organizations in the development of their own arts related activities.
The Arts Hub, powered by non-profit and for profit arts leaders, as well as artists and interested arts patrons, has helped to promote Historic Downtown Louisville as a destination for arts related activities.
The Arts Hub promotes a “collective arts community” comprised of arts organizations, arts businesses, artists and art patrons with individual contributions to growing the arts in Louisville. The Arts Hub encourages collaboration, cooperation and development of a mutually supportive function. By establishing coordinated events and common promotional materials, the unified collective is a much stronger force for creative arts development.
Historic Downtown Louisville has a pleasant, compact, walkable geography; a number of people who are passionate about the arts; a receptive attitude of area businesses; a cooperative nature of relationships between area arts leaders; an eclectic nature of downtown, which inspires creativity; and access to an incredibly creative, energetic and supportive citizenry. These features make this geographic region ideal for nurturing a creative culture.
Arts Hub Promotional Efforts
- Website: An interactive website is an ideal mechanism for helping to develop a public awareness of the strong presence of the multitude of art related businesses, organizations and talented artists in and around Historic Downtown Louisville.
- Arts Calendar Postings: The Arts Hub posts regularly updated arts calendar listings in the Historic Downtown Louisville area.
- Brochure: Brochures, updated bi-annually, are made available for distribution to local businesses.
- Booths: The Arts Hub promotes arts organizations and the arts collective in booth space at local events.
Other Arts Hub Efforts
- ArtsFest: The Arts Hub's annual signature event is ArtsFest, a celebration involving a wide variety of arts specialties and arts organizations that includes active public participation in artistic endeavors.
- Arts Leader Meetings: Meetings of arts leaders (leaders from non-profit groups, art businesses or other entities that support the arts) are designed to coordinate information exchange about activities of each arts entity and to promote collaboration between them.
- Facilitation: The Arts Hub periodically facilitates specific connections with available arts resources, as the need arises.
HISTORY OF THE ARTS HUB
- Sept/09 Leaders of local non-profit arts organizations (The Art Underground, CenterStage Theatre Company, Coal Creek Community Theater, Louisville Art Association and Louisville Cultural Council) met at the Louisville Recreation Center to discuss creating an alliance to promote all artistic endeavors in Louisville through sharing information about each groups’ activities, creating common marketing and promoting future collaborations.
- Jan/10 Non-profit Art Organization Leaders met with artists, art business owners, and individuals interested in promoting the arts in Louisville to join forces and present a unified collective through the creation of common marketing and collaborative events. The name of The Arts Hub was selected for the new group. A schedule of collaborative events for 2010 was established. The decision was made to support the local galleries in establishing monthly collaborative Art Walks. The group was comprised of art non-profit leaders, artists, art business owners, theater company leaders and dance, art and music business owners who had organizations located in Historic Downtown Louisville.
- Feb/10 Voltage Design donated the creation of an Arts Hub logo and a blog with a link to the Boulder County Arts Alliance sponsored common calendar. Studio Monika donated time to design an Arts Hub brochure, representing the Louisville art organizations and businesses as a unified entity. Heidi Ochis donated her services to create a map of the businesses located in Historic Downtown Lousiville, revealing the arts presence in this region. Creative Framing Art Gallery donated materials for an Arts Hub bulletin board with a map of Historic Downtown with identification of arts related businesses and local merchants to be placed in the Art Underground. Zaremba Graphic + Web Solutions donated the map image used for the bulletin board.
- March/10 Participating groups and businesses donated funds for the printing of the Arts Hub brochure. The brochures were printed and given to Arts Hub members to distribute. The Louisville Downtown Business Association offered to place the Arts Hub logo on Street Faire banners located on South Boulder Road.
- June/10 Arts Hub promotional activities were offered at a Taste of Louisville booth sponsored by the Art Underground and the Louisville Chamber of Commerce.
- Aug/10 A coordinated Arts Hub Event was held involving local art gallery exhibits and special event features such as live music and catered food were held at Anthony Grant Studio Gallery, Creative Framing Art Gallery, Studio Monika, Marketplace Exhibit, The Art Underground Exhibit, craft booths and a performance by local youth and three Broadway stars in the Steinbaugh Pavilion. Other local businesses, such as JuJu Beads also participated with offering their own specials in their individual businesses. Additionally, there was a Teen Film and Photography Fest sponsored by The Art Underground.
- Oct/10 Another coordinated Arts Hub Event was held with gallery exhibits and live music in Anthony Grant Studio Gallery, Creative Framing Art Gallery, Studio Monika, Bittersweet Gallery, the Art Underground and the Front Street Commons. Again, JuJu Beads and other businesses also participated. The Arts Hub took out ads for the event and produced maps noting locations of exhibits that were given to local gallery owners to distribute to customers.
- Jan/11 A coordinated event with all of the above was held. There was a good amount of publicity about the cooperative nature of the arts community that was allowing the arts to thrive in Louisville.
- Feb/11 An Arts Hub meeting was held to establish an agenda for 2011. The decision was made to continue to support galleries holding monthly art walks, to focus on a single, larger Arts Hub Event to be called ArtsFest involving as many arts organizations as possible, to work towards establishing an Arts Hub website and to look into the feasibility of getting a kiosk in Historic Downtown Louisville to disseminate information about the arts in Louisville.
- March/11-Aug/11 Many subcommittee meetings were held to prepare for the Arts Fest Event and to promote networking among Arts Hub members involved in the ArtsFest.
- Sept/11 ArtsFest 2011 was held involving live music in the Steinbaugh Pavilion, Louisville Idol and mini-workshops sponsored by Dana V. Music, an art show held in the Louisville Public Library, an Old Town Cinema film showing at the Bittersweet Café, many live art demos and participatory art booths, as well as art sales and food vendors beside the Steinbaugh and in the library parking lot. The Louisville Downtown Business Association and many restaurants, other businesses and individuals donated the funds for this event.
- Oct/11 Charity Advantage offered website management and initial design services at a much reduced cost. The Art Underground donated the funds and design services to create an Arts Hub website.
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